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Rafa Nadal secures year-end number one ranking for the first time since 2013

November 1, 2017 4:01 PM

Rafael Nadal ensured he will end the season ranked number one with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Chung Hyeong at the Paris Masters.

It is the fourth time the 31-year-old has achieved the feat having previously finished 2008, 2010 and 2013 on top.

This has been a remarkable season of renaissance for Nadal, who bounced back from wrist problems last year to win his 15th and 16th grand slam titles at the French Open and US Open.

In an on-court interview broadcast by Sky Sports, the Spaniard said: "I'm very very happy for everything. It has been an amazing year. One year ago for sure I never dreamed about being world number one at end of the season so it's something that means a lot."

Roger Federer's withdrawal from the tournament in order to rest ahead of the ATP Finals meant Nadal needed only one win to guarantee his great rival could not catch him.

And he avoided any slip-ups against 54th-ranked Chung, although the 21-year-old did cause Nadal problems.

Nadal sat out last week's event in Basel to rest his knees after a successful hard-court season and put in a patchy performance.

After conceding an early break, he looked to have turned things around when he led 5-2 in the opening set only for Chung to level up.

The young Korean had a break point for 6-5 but Nadal's serve helped him get out of trouble and he pulled away from a tiring Chung at the end to claim victory after an hour and 48 minutes.

Nadal has, of course, enjoyed fantastic success in Paris, winning the French Open 10 times across the city at Roland Garros, but he has never won the title at Bercy.

Next he will face Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, who ended a 10-match losing streak in round one and backed that up with a 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/1) 6-2 victory over 15th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

In the race to join Nadal and Zverev at the ATP Finals in London, there were valuable victories for Lucas Pouille and John Isner.

Pouille, the champion in Vienna last weekend, eased to a 6-3 6-4 win over Feliciano Lopez while Isner, who would need to win the title in Paris to stand a chance, was a 7-6 (7/2) 6-7 (11/13) 6-3 winner over Diego Schwartzman.

But Kevin Anderson, the man beaten by Nadal in the final of the US Open, can no longer qualify after a 5-7 6-4 7-5 defeat by Fernando Verdasco.

(CNN) A French tribunal on Thursday ordered a former minister of health and sports to pay tennis star Rafael Nadal $11,800 in damages for accusing him of doping.
The tribunal found that Roselyne Bachelot, who served as the minister of health and sports between 2007 and 2010, defamed the 16-time grand slam winner during a March 2016 television appearance in France.

The tennis star filed a lawsuit against Bachelot the following month, saying at the time that the case was intended "to defend my integrity and my image as an athlete, but also the values I have defended all my career."

In a statement released Thursday by a representative of Nadal's Monaco-based PR team, the Spanish player said he also sought to prevent "any public figure from making insulting or false allegations against an athlete using the media, without any evidence or foundation and to go unpunished." "The motivation as I have always remarked was not economical," he said. Nadal said he would donate the 10,000 euros awarded to him to a French charity.
After filing the lawsuit, Nadal asked the International Tennis Federation to disclose the results of all doping tests he has ever taken.

During an appearance on French TV's Canal+, Bachelot accused Nadal of taking seven months out of tennis between 2012 and 2013 to cover up a failed drugs test. "We know that the famous injury which kept Nadal out for seven months is without any doubt because he tested positive," Bachelot said. "When you see a tennis player out of action for a long time, it's usually because they've tested positive." Nadal has maintained that he missed various tournaments, including the 2012 Olympics and US Open, due to a knee injury.